In Nelson’s reading, he explains that hypertext is “non-sequential writing – text that branches and allows the reader choices”… But he also explains that it is so much more too.

I found myself being really frustrated that I couldn’t use this artefact in a truly ‘hypertext’ way, seeing as the PDF pages had been photocopied and ordered in a way which thus made it sequential. I really should have tried to get it out from a library to fully experience it, but then I got thinking about the relationship between hypertext and form – is it better suited to online, which we perceive to be lateral, plural and non-linear. Or is it limiting of me to think it cannot be as well achieved in hard-copy forms such as the very book Nelson wrote? (Answer: yes).

Hypertext is a difficult discourse for me to understand as a self-proclaimed ‘completionist‘ who needs to be across all available information lest I be struck down with crippling FOMO. In Integrated Media 1, when introduced to Korsakow, I tried very hard to adjust my boundaries of media experience and expression, but I just never felt too comfortable within the space. Perhaps I’m not supposed to feel comfortable in it though. Maybe that’s where the learning happens, and the meaningful content is produced. It doesn’t mean that I’m not fascinated by the ‘new media/alternative media’ terrain, because I am, and I love learning about it. I think I just need to experiment more with practising within it. I really want to produce my final mixed-media creative critical essay for Network Media  in a hypertext system (similar to Adrian Miles’ hypertext essays) so hopefully I will be able to explore and push the boundaries further then.

I enjoyed reading about Nelson’s Project Xanadu, the first hypertext project created in the 60s. I found the brief introduction to Xanalogical storage systems especially interesting as it was a new way of thinking about retrieval and presentation of information in hypertext/hypermedia structures for me.